The Infection
by Greveus
Summary: The story of a man as he tries escapes Johto after a mysterious virus causes the Pokémon and people to change.


About a month ago, Blaine hired a group of workers to start rebuilding Cinnabar Island. They found the old research facility under the hardened magma. Most of the inside, surprisingly, was still intact. Blaine instantly sent out a research group after hearing this news to gather any possible data that could have survived and to see if there was anything that could be salvaged… By the ways things turned out, I wish Blaine had kept Cinnabar's reconstruction a dream. The researchers found a virus or something. It turns you into a… I can't say it. Usually these things only occur in horror movies, but not this time…

The virus has a 100% death rate, kills you within a minute, maybe more. I've already seen it too many times to count. It all started when Professor Elm had asked me to figure out why the local Pokémon were acting so strange recently. After I was out on Route 29 I spotted a Furret, it was starring off into the trees, as if looking for something. It soon took notice of me and charged at me. I order my Magneton to hit it with a Thunder Wave to stun it. After it recovered it was no longer hostile to me. Instead, it turns its attention to a Sentret. I didn't know those things could run that fast. Magneton just goes off and launches a Thunder attack on it, I told him to stop but he didn't. After the Sentret dropped to the floor it started to get up again. The Furret dashed towards it as if to attack and got scratched pretty badly by the Sentret. Magneton launched another Thunder on the Sentret, this time it didn't get up. The Furret lied down and started to gasp for air. I should have realized that something wasn't right. I tried to run toward it to see if anything was wrong but was stopped by Magneton. Right now, I'm glad he did what he did. The Furret started to get up, it looked different somehow. Magneton attacked it with a Thunder Wave and started charging up a Flash Cannon. I tried to stop him but he just didn't listen, even went as far as to shock me when I tried moving him. He nearly disintegrated the poor thing when he unloaded that beam of light on to it. All I could do was look in horror of what my Magneton had done to the poor Furret. I looked through my bag to find his Pokéball and recalled him.

I got back to New Bark Town to see a bunch of people moving things into their cars or just leaving with backpacks. I had to report back to Elm about what happened on Route 29. I was still in a bit of shock over what had happened. I could care less about what the other people were doing at the time.

Once I got to the lab I see the Professor and his assistants packing up boxes, mostly filled with hard drives and data disks. When I asked what was going on no one paid any attention to me, one of the assistants just told me to help them pack that they had to leave soon. I just kept looking for Elm. Once I managed to find him I explained what had happened to me on Route 29. He told me that there is something bad happening and they were told to evacuate New Bark and head directly for Olivine City. Once he told me that, I figured it had to be related to what had happened to me. Once we were done packing everything we mounted the boxes with the data that we needed onto a truck that the other researchers used whenever they would go do field research at faraway locations. We quickly made our way to Cherrygrove.

Cherrygrove had this eerie feeling once we got there. It was cloudy and getting dark by the time we got there so everyone was on edge. There were a few people from New Bark passing through, we would have offered them a ride but we were crammed into the truck already. Hearing a loud scream coming from the distance Elm sped up to see what had made the scream. When we got there, it wasn't a pleasant sight. A woman was being attacked by about 10 Pidgey while a man lay motionless on the floor beside her. The other researchers were cowards, they told Elm to leave them to their fate. Thankfully me and him think the same, or else I would have been outnumbered. I sent out my Magneton and Sparky, my Ampharos, while he sent out a Magnezone and a Croconaw. He commanded his Croconaw to use Hydro Pump on them, and we used our Electric attacks. They didn't faint though, they died. The woman went back to the man lying on the floor only to scream in pain as he took a bite out of her arm. Realizing what had happened to the man, and soon would happen to the woman. I tell Magneton to hit them with his strongest Flash Cannon, and Sparky to stun them with Thunder Wave while Magneton is charging. Magneton looked at me hesitantly as I told him that I understood why he had acted as he did earlier. He then proceeded to charge his Flash Cannon and unloaded it onto the infected couple. It felt wrong doing what I did. Elm reassured me by telling me that I did the right thing. He seemed to have known what was going to happen too somehow.

While heading for the truck we heard a massive roar that echoed across Cherrygrove, as a beam of light zoomed over us and hit the truck dead on, making it disappears in a fiery explosion. Elm looked at where the truck used to be with a blank stare, he turned around and anger filled his eyes as fear did mine. A Tyranitar was heading for us. It had scratches all over its body which seem to fail to pierce its skin, but one stood out on its face which seemed to have gotten its eye. Elm just looked at me as I was preparing to fight it off as well. He told me that he was going to buy me time so I could escape. I knew his idea was suicide, but I couldn't blame him, his 3 best friends had just been killed right in front of his eyes. I asked him if he was sure about it. He told me he was, he recalled his Croconaw and gave me the Pokéball along with another one. He told me to take care of them. I told him I would, wished him good luck and ran out of Cherrygrove and through Route 30 as fast as I could, not looking back once…

I was about half way through Route 31. It was dark, very, very dark. The rain failed to make things any better for me. Magneton and Sparky were still out. They seemed to be enjoying the thunder though. I thought about letting Croconaw and the other Pokémon that Elm had given me out, but then I realized more Pokémon outside would probably just attract more infected, so I decided not to. We were nearing the gate to get to Violet City. I could see quite a few figures standing in front of it. Thankfully they weren't infected as I first thought. They were the Johto Army. They were standing there in their ponchos with their steel Pokémon and rifles. As I approached they took aim and yelled at me to stop or they would shoot. I just tensed up and stopped telling my Pokémon to do the same. The next thing they told me was to slowly approach them. I'm guessing that the heavy rain must have made it hard to see me. As me and my Pokémon slowly approached they lowered their guns and their Pokémon went back into their defensive positions. They told me to enter the gate and to await further instructions.

Once inside I was greeted by a soldier who checked Sparky and then told to release any other Pokémon that I had one at a time, I let out Croconaw who was quickly examined, and still wondering what the other Pokémon Elm had given me I asked them why they needed to see them. They told me it was a safety precaution, as to make sure none of the Pokémon entering Violet City were infected. I threw the Pokéball and my curiosity of the other Pokémon that Elm had given me was satisfied. It was a Quilava. He looked around the soldier filled room. He was very nervous. Flames lit up on his back as he backed away to where Croconaw was standing. I quickly withdrew him and was scolded by a Sergeant that was there, telling me to control my Pokémon, and how they couldn't afford to have anyone injured. I quickly apologized and tried to explain everything that had happened to me. By the time I was finished I could tell the Sergeant had more important things to do and had probably stopped listening to me. He told one of the soldiers to take me to the refugee camp. I recalled my Pokémon and followed him.

The rained had stopped. The escort wasn't a big deal, all he did was take me 3 minutes away to the Gym, which had been modified into a refugee camp for all the people that they couldn't fit in the Pokémon Center. I see a few familiar faces and even more that unfamiliar ones. The soldier told me that I am to stay at the Gym until morning when we were to move to Ecruteak City. The first thing that came to mind at the moment was food and sleep. A man walked up to me holding a box, dressed like the other soldiers, but he looked significantly older. The other soldiers were clean shaven and couldn't have been older than their late 20s. But before me stood a man well into his 60s with a full grey beard, wrinkles on his face and arms, large bushy eyebrows, and something I hadn't seen since this morning, a smile. The only reason why I didn't question why he had one on was because he opened the box which was filled with supplies for me, but more importantly, food. Once I ate a can of food the only thing that was currently on my mind was sleep. I quickly lied down on the sleeping bag that was in the box and was out for the night.

I awoke to the loud wails of the siren, only to realize the sun hadn't risen. I didn't really pay it much mind just thinking it was to wake us up so we could start packing to go to Ecruteak, but this thought soon blew over as I heard gunfire and saw flashes of light over the barricade of trees that surrounded Violet City. I then realize that whatever infected Pokémon or human were out there were heading this way. I saw the old man yelling at people to hurry up and to get moving to the West gate. Not usually the one to question orders I grabbed the backpack that was inside the box and quickly stuffed all the supplies that were left along with the sleeping bag. On my way to the gate I saw soldiers getting ready to fight whatever was coming their way. They had rockets and almost any type of gun you could possibly think of, along with many Steel and Rock type Pokémon. It was quite uneventful after I got through the gate. The old man and some soldiers were around us. We couldn't fit in the trucks that had gone to Ecruteak so we just walked. Our pace had slowed down greatly when we got onto Route 37. Everyone had let their guard down. I'm pretty sure it was because we were close to Ecruteak. I'm lucky that I had been expecting something since we got out of Violet city, or else I probably wouldn't have made it.

Once the city was in view all you could hear were people cheering followed by large wails coming from the opposite direction of Ecruteak as many infected Pokémon began to close in on us. Many people just made a run for Ecruteak including some soldiers, cowards. Some trainers and the rest of the soldiers stayed behind to fight off the infected. I sent out Magneton, Sparky, and Croconaw. Quilava would have been useful, but I didn't think it would be able to handle the situation based on its previous behavior. I order Sparky to unleash Thunder Wave after Thunder Wave, Magneton was using Flash Cannon, and Croconaw used Hydro Pump and Ice Beam. The other trainers were just shouting random orders, they didn't know what would happen to their Pokémon were they to get hit. We ended up killing more infected Pokémon that belonged to the trainers that stayed behind with us then ended up attacking us. We even had to take out a few trainers…

We made our way to Ecruteak only to see our stay would not last long. There were piles of bodies on the side of the streets being burned. You could see the Bell Tower off in the city outskirts, but it wasn't much of a view. Not with everything that was going on. It was only mid-day by the time we got there, and we were told we'd be leaving within the hour. Not much time to do anything. I let out Quilava and Croconaw, to see if I could gain some of their trust. Croconaw had already fought by my side once before, but me and Quilava had only just met. I needed a quick and safe way to earn some of his trust. The first thing that came to mind was food. None of us had had anything to eat the whole day, and I still had enough rations from Violet City to last us till we got to Olivine. So we started eating. Not knowing if this would be our last meal, we just ate everything. Once we were done I could tell that Sparky and Croconaw were content for the time being, Quilava was still a bit unnerved by everything that was going on. I told Croconaw and Sparky to explain what was going on to it. At one point both Croconaw and Quilava were looking sad, I'm guessing that is when they got to what happened in Cherrygrove. After they were done talking to each other Quilava looked at me with an unsure look in his eyes, he then gave me a nod as the look in his eyes shifted from uncertainty to determination. I gave him a nod and scratched his head, which he seemed to have liked. I quickly packed my things and started making my way to the gate that would lead us to Olivine.

The walk to the gate was a long one. People arguing, crying, fighting, looting… it was obvious that social order was quickly deteriorating. Between everything that had already happened to me within 2 days, I didn't care anymore, I just wanted to get out of here. The old soldier from Violet was sitting in one of the trucks by the gate. His smile had faded and had been replaced by a scowl. After losing all those people on our way here, I can't blame him. Me and my Pokémon waited at the gate for another 15 minutes before we were told that we were leaving for Olivine… Those 15 minutes felts like hours. Just thinking if I'll make it, if anyone would really miss me if I didn't… And all of the sudden, I realized that after all this is over I probably will never be able to return home, because it's no longer existed…

Us leaving Ecruteak was no different than when we got there. The sky even looked the same as when we had arrived. There were infected Pokémon along with the occasional human. We just blasted out way through. The people had now seen what the infected can do, so they weren't quick to take any chances. Once we got to Route 40 we were being overwhelmed by infected. This gave us three possible conclusions. Either they had already attacked and killed everything in Olivine, the infected were being held back by the troops located there, or we would all die before we got there. As more infected came up to us more Pokémon started to fall. We had lost the 4 trucks that we had begun our travel from Ecruteak to Olivine with and more than half of the people too. The infected were mostly Miltank, Tauros, and Raticate, but nonetheless, they weren't easy to deal with, and it was getting dark.

As soon as I could see the Olivine Lighthouse I knew we couldn't quit, not when we were so close. Not one minute later we see trucks off in the distance speeding toward us. The joy of knowing that we were going to be saved clouded our thoughts, made us lower our defense just enough for them to get one last of us. The other people and soldiers were running in the direction of the trucks as the infected Pokémon were backing down, so no one noticed when Sparky was bitten by a Raticate. I rushed towards him, holding him, telling him how everything was going to be okay. We both knew it wasn't going to be, but it was the only thing that I could think of to try and comfort him. His eyes slowly closed as he smiled one last time. His pulse slowly started slow as I put him down knowing what came next. I couldn't let him turn into one of those things, I told Quilava to use Fire Blast and Magneton to use Flash Cannon, before he had the chance to turn. I looked away as I saw my shadow form when the two attacks unleashed and hit Sparky. A couple men in a truck drove up to me and told me to get in. I had just lost the first Pokémon I ever got and my childhood friend, and I knew I'd never see him again. I didn't want to be rescued now, but I knew I had to be. Croconaw and Quilava were trying to push me into truck as one of the soldiers aimed his gun at me. I looked up at the soldier with tears streaming down my face, as he lowered his gun. I got into the truck with my remaining Pokémon following me. Croconaw and Quilava knew I was destroyed after what just happened, they were also saddened by it, and they were showing it too. Croconaw had leaned against my right side as Quilava lied down in my lap. Magneton just fell to the floor of the truck. The drive from there to Olivine couldn't have been more than 4 minutes, but it felt like it would never end and that the worst was yet to come. Fortunately for us, that was the worst part of the entire trip.

We got off at Olivine, greeted by soldiers, other survivors, and Jasmine, the Olivine City Gym Leader. Everywhere you looked you could see an armed soldier with a Steel Pokémon. Made good sense with what the Gym Leader specialized in. We didn't see any more infected from there on out. I went through an identification process as to see who survived and to remove them from the missing sheet… turns out I was the only one from New Bark Town to make it to Olivine. I stayed under a little roof with a bench under it that looked out to sea. I didn't sleep and I only left to eat and to use the restroom. My Pokémon stayed by my side the entire time. I waited for 3 whole days. When I saw the ship approaching the harbor I didn't feel anything, I just wanted to leave.

Now it is day 2 on the S.S. Marian. It's been an entire week since the infection first hit Johto. Since I was of the last of the people to be evacuated I managed to get a room to myself. The first day on the ship I just spent walking around seeing if there was anything to do while we got to Hoenn. Quilava found that someone had left a bag in this room our first night here. Inside it had this recorder, a couple blank tapes, and a blank "If found return to" tag. Somehow I managed to motivate myself to record the events that occurred to me from day one to escape from Johto. I don't know what I'm really going to do, but I'm going to have a new life. I'm being relocated to Lavaridge, wherever that is. Quilava and Croconaw are helping me get over my loss one day at a time now. Beds are comfortable, 'course I can't fall asleep for more than 30 minutes without a nightmare waking me. Pokémon seem to be doing better than me when it comes to sleeping. Right now I'm just excited to get to Hoenn. That's really all I have to say. This has EX-researcher Luke's experience through the infection of Johto. Hopefully I'll never have to go through something like this again.

- End -

**This is my first fanfic, so please write a review on what you like about it and what you don't like. All criticism is accepted, no matter how bad it is.  
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